Random Thoughts

World Cup final, recent reading and more

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Things have been a mixture of busy and troublesome. We had another round of cold/flu things sweep through from my daughter’s school. This fall/winter has been absolutely unbelievable in the sheer volume of cold, flu, adenovirus, etc. that have been floating around. Here’s hoping things improve in 2023 because this frequency of sickness is really hard to deal with. Things have also been busy at work - the end of the year is always a hectic period for consulting. Plus there’s following the sturm and drang over the Congressional end of year session - though it looks like that will be resolved at the end of this week/before Christmas. That being said, in order to keep writing I’m going to put down some random thoughts on current events -

Today’s World Cup final was a fantastic advertisement for why the beautiful game is one of the most compelling sports in the world. France and Argentina, Mbappe and Messi - heavyweights trading punches through 90 minutes, extra time, and then on to penalties. Just gripping, gripping stuff. After going down early, Deschamps arguably panicked and made two subs before the half - something that almost never happens in competitive football. In particular, the decision to remove Olivier Giroud in order to put more speed on the field may be something the Frenchman regrets given how many issues they had with crosses just missing foreheads in the second half. Regardless, winning a World Cup is a fitting capstone to Lionel Messi’s superlative career and something that will hopefully cement his position as the greatest modern player.

I finished yet another compelling book by Cal Newton. “So Good they Can’t Ignore You” is a decade old at this point and it’s interesting to see how it clearly points to his more recent work such as ‘Deep Work’ and ‘Digital Minimalism’. The major arguments of the book are that people shouldn’t pursue a “passion” career where the subject of their job provides them with meaning, but a “craftsmanship” career where dedication and focus on a skill enables them to find meaning and develop career capital, allowing them to have control and autonomy in how they engage with their work. It’s honestly yet another book that I wish I had read earlier. In a lot of ways, I think my own career path has been coming to similar conclusions but only through life experience (sometimes painfully earned) rather than through reading a book. Though given the nature of the conclusions, I have to wonder if I would have so willingly accepted them just through reading rather than through experience.

I also finished a short John Cleese book on creativity. It was interesting how Cleese actually points to similar habits of work and thinking as Newton. In particular, Cleese focuses on being deliberate and dedicated in order to achieve the right mental state for true creativity. It’s a short read but I think anyone involved in knowledge work would benefit from giving it a look.

Next week I’ll be traveling much of the week, but I’m hoping I’ll find time to write up some thoughts about why I’d expect next year to be a difficult year for defense spending and why companies should be preparing for a shutdown and a potentially long-running continuing resolution. However, I’ve also got plenty of end-of-year work and a couple of papers I want to work on as well, so we will see.